Rwandan Hero to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Bethel

Bethel College will award an honorary doctorate to religious and political activist in Rwandan politics, Frank Habineza, on March. 15. The event will take place during chapel inside the Everest-Rohrer Chapel/Fine Arts Center — Auditorium at 10 a.m.

Habineza was born in Mityana, Uganda in 1977 where he attended the National University of Rwanda and graduated with a degree in Public Administration in 2004. While at University, he started a student association campaigning for environmental protection known as Rwanda Wildlife Clubs. This led to him becoming the personal assistant for the Minister of Lands, Environment, Water, Forestry and Mines. He also worked in journalism and wrote for the “Rwanda Herald Newspaper.”

Habineza entered Rwandan politics on August 14, 2009 with the formation of Opposition Democratic Green Party of Rwanda (DPGR). He was then elected president of the African Greens Federation, a coalition of 30 political parties and movements across the African Continent. Habineza has been laying low in Sweden after his vice president was assassinated in July 2010.

Habineza was also the National Coordinator for the Nile Basin Discourse Forum in Rwanda (NBDF), president of the Rwanda NGO’s Forum on Water, Sanitation, and Environment (RWASEF), and founder Chairman for the Rwandan Environment Conservation Organization (RECOR). He was also the Regional Coordinator for Mission Africa in Eastern Africa, working closely with World Partners-USA and the Missionary Church.

He is currently the Secretary of Africa International Partners, a coalition of different Christian ministries involved in discipleship movement and church planting. He is also a member of Christians United For Israel, and is the Secretary General for the Life Transformation Church-Rwanda, a network of churches founded on discipleship principles. His local church, New Life Bible Church, is in Kigali.

Habineza received the Democracy Prize in Swedish Parliament in April 2011, and also an African Leader in Innovation and Sustainability Award from Pilot International-Uganda in August 2011.

Bethel College is an accredited Christian college offering associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in more than 70 areas of study. The current enrollment of more than 2,000 includes students from 34 states and Puerto Rico, 19 countries, more than 25 denominations and 16 percent from culturally diverse backgrounds. Scholarships are available based upon a variety of factors including academic achievement, talent in the arts or athletics, ethnicity and church affiliation. In addition to its beautifully wooded 75-acre main campus in Mishawaka, Ind., Bethel also offers specific academic programs at sites in Elkhart, Ind., Fort Wayne, Ind., Dowagiac, Mich., and St. Joseph, Mich. Nursing programs are also offered in cooperation with Grace College in Winona Lake, Ind.